Astronomy Is Written For Astronomers

Finally We Shall Place The Sun Himself At The Center Of The Universe. All This Is Suggested By The System Of Procession Of Events And The Harmony Of The Whole Universe, If Only We Face The Facts, As They Say, "with Eyes Wide Open."

To Know That We Know What We Know, And To Know That We Do Not Know What We Do Not Know, That Is True Knowledge.

So If The Worth Of The Arts Were Measured By The Matter With Which They Deal, This Art-which Some Call Astronomy, Others Astrology, And Many Of The Ancients The Consummation Of Mathematics-would Be By Far The Most Outstanding. This Art Which Is As It Were The Head Of All The Liberal Arts And The One Most Worthy Of A Free Man Leans Upon Nearly All The Other Branches Of Mathe Matics. Arithmetic, Geometry, Optics, Geodesy, Mechanics, And Whatever Others, All Offer Themselves In Its Service.

Therefore, In The Course Of The Work I Have Followed This Plan: I Describe In The First Book All The Positions Of The Orbits Together With The Movements Which I Ascribe To The Earth, In Order That This Book Might Contain, As It Were, The General Scheme Of The Universe.

Perhaps There Will Be Prattlers Who, Although Completely Ignorant Of Mathematics, Nevertheless Take It Upon Themselves To Pass Judgment On Mathematical Questions, And On Account Of Some Passage In Scripture, Badly Distorted To Their Purpose, Will Dare To Censure And Assail What I Have Presented Here.